Writing Center Meeting

I had my Writing Center meeting yesterday at 10:00 am with William.  I got there a little early, so we began our appointment before the scheduled time.  This was beneficial because we ended up talking about my paper for more than 30 minutes.  I first explained to him what my paper was about and a little background information.  He then asked me if I had anything specific I needed help with and I really didn't have that many questions, but I did ask him about the structure of my paper and if my thoughts and ideas flowed well together.  So we began by going through each of my paragraphs.  We first read through the Introduction, and he felt like my thesis was very vague and a little too general.  But, he thought that the topic of my paper was good and that I had access to a lot of information but that I would just have to find it.  From there, we went through each paragraph and I gave an overview of the main topic and idea.  Overall, he felt like my ideas were cohesive and that they flowed well together in the order that they were in.  He did not feel that way about some of my sentences concerning the paragraph about addressing counter arguments.  I had some choppy sentences that needed to be rewritten.  William was saying that he was concerned about what I was going to add to my paper, but that if I compared two commercials or advertisements from the same company and prove how children are becoming more and more susceptible to being targets for unhealthy food advertisements.  Overall, I believe that my writing center meeting was beneficial to my paper because William gave me helpful tips as to how I can make my paper better and more cohesive.

Research Outline

Emma Templeton

Eng 103-010

Lamos

Research Paper - Outline

I.  Introduction

·         Hook: When you flip through a magazine, or are casually watching the TV, how many times do you come across advertisements concerning fast food restaurants?  Also include some statistics on the rate of childhood obesity within the United States.

·         Thesis:  The advertising of the fast food industry in the United States is geared towards children, which in effect has caused the rate of childhood obesity within this country to increase over the past thirty years.

·         Implications: What are the effects of fast food advertising on a child's mind? What makes them want to eat fast food so badly?

II. The Beginnings of a Catastrophic Downfall

·         A brief overview of childhood obesity rates within the United States in present day as compared to the mid-1970s.

·         Research popular chain restaurants advertisement campaigns throughout those same years and compare the obesity rate to that of the advertising.

1.      McDonald's, Wendy's, Burger King, etc.

1.      Need to figure out which restaurants to focus on.

·         Use of ethos to catch the reader's attention, and therefore allowing the child to crave their food.

·         Source: Crawford and Jeffery’s Obesity Prevention and Public Health

·         Source: Childhood Obesity: Public-Health Crisis, Common Sense Cure

III. Target: Children

·         This section will be centered on how fast food companies cater their advertisement campaigns to children

·         Fast food companies are able to do this through commercials, toys, kid’s meals, mascots, etc. which are all forms of ethos

VI. Growing Up Into Obesity and Other Outside Influences

·         Counter arguments will be addressed in this section.

·         Many believe that fast food and fast food advertising is not a main reason for the increase in childhood obesity over the years

·         Source: Jan Grover’s book Food

·         Another counter argument can be that the children do not have control over how often they eat fast food – it is in the hands of the parents/guardians

V.  So, What Does This Say About America?

·         Summarize/recap all of the arguments in the paper into a smooth, flowing conclusion

·         Remember to address counter arguments also

Questions to address:

·         Why is this significant to America and why is such a huge concern across the United States?

·         If childhood obesity is such a monumental concern, what can we do about it? How can we decrease the number of children who are obese?